1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and article of manufacture for displaying and merchandising death care products. Among such products are caskets, coffins, urns, keepsakes, memorials, such as those made of bronze, marble, granite and other metals, metal alloys, stone or concrete; flowers, vases, stationary, cards, and other printed materials, video tapes and disks, burial vaults and related merchandise for the death care industry.
2. Description of the Related Art
As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,017, entitled xe2x80x9cModular Casket Display Systemxe2x80x9d an alcove was formed of a back wall and two side or wing walls to display full sized caskets. In such a display, neither the back or wing walls were load bearing, but merely formed an alcove in which a double tiered, self-supporting casket display rack was placed within the alcove for displaying a full size casket.
Fundamental to all of the configurations in the modular casket display system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,017, was the prefabrication of modular walls that are removably attached to one another to create the desired alcove configurations. As disclosed in such patent, a complete casket display room took three to five days to set up. This is because each of the wing or side walls had to be removably secured to the back wall and each wing wall leveled (such as by the use of leveling screws, such as were conventionally used on refrigerators and the like). Thereafter, prefabricated molding had to be slid into place to conceal the leveling screws. Such a process was labor intensive, both in fabrication of the wing walls so as to be removably attached to the rear wall, as well as in the labor required to install the alcoves at the site of use.
Although other imitations of the alcove structure as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,017 have appeared on the market, all such systems rely on the structure of a back wall and wing walls, where the wing walls support the rear wall. Thus, all the commercially available systems suffer from the same drawbacks of that of U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,017.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide methods of merchandising and merchandising display systems which do not suffer from the drawbacks of the prior art.
It is a further object of the invention to provide death care merchandising systems that are less labor intensive to fabricate and assemble than prior art systems and methods of assembling the same.
It is a further object of the invention to provide death care merchandising systems that provide an integrated display, not only of decedent confinement chambers (e.g., burial vaults, urns, caskets or coffins, preferably in sectional, facade or miniature format), but also in conjunction with other death care merchandise including, but not limited to, keepsakes, flower arrangements, stationary, cards, pamphlets, books, grief counselling and other printed matters and electronically stored information (e.g., CD, DVD, audio or videotape) associated with the death care industry, vases, memorials and memorabilia including, but not limited to, bronzes, marble, granite, and other metal, metal alloy, stone and concrete memorials, informational materials, including printed matter such as placards, photographs, and other information about the death care merchandise and the available product and services from the death care industry. The death care merchandising system of the present invention may be embellished by the use of cornices, retractable and extendible drawers to display adornments or interiors for the caskets, coffins, and other death care merchandise, and may be partially or completely provided with doors so as to conceal the contents of various portions of the death care merchandise, e.g., to conceal clothing, infant caskets or coffins or to act as a storage unit for other death care merchandise.